Meng's Travels: Florence

We took the local train from Riomaggiore to La Spezia. Not surprisingly, the train station and the train was very crowded. Obviously, Cinque Terre is overrun by tourists. Just like Florence and Venice. Unfortunately, that's where we are heading next.

It was a 2-hour train ride from La Spezia to Florence. We arrived at the sprawling Santa Maria Novella train station in the early afternoon. I've booked a room with Florence Style Residence through Booking.com. I called the rental agent and she told me that it was only a 5-minute walk from the train station. But Google Maps showed me a different direction and it took us about 20 minutes to find the apartment. What is confusing is that there are 2 numbers for each building: the address and a commercial property number. We were told to ring the door bell and the agent's husband would open the door for us. The apartment is on the third floor through a narrow and steep staircase. The agent's husband did not offer any help to us to carry our luggage up, especially Doris'. All he said was that we brought too much stuff with us. Well....we were trying in Europe for 5weeks!

The room was small, with the window facing the street. The bathroom was just outside the room. You can barely squeeze through the shower door. You get what you paid for - we paid only about 70€ per night. In busy Florence, that's a bargain. The good news is the apartment is within walking distance from most of the tourist sites. After setting down our stuff, we took a walk along the Arno River towards Ponte Vecchio, the famous ancient bridge. Many tourists stroll on both sides of the bridge, passing expensive shops. This is what Florence is about - expensive shops along ancient streets and piazza, museums, cathedrals, statues and monuments, and gelato shops. This is my 3rd trip to Florence and it gets more and more crowded with tourists.

Commentary on the Ponte (Bridge) Vecchio

Shops and tourists on either side of Ponte Vecchio

Sunset over the Arno River

View of Ponte Vecchio from Ponte Santa Trinita

The most famous sight in Florence is The Duomo, also known as Santa Maria del Fiore. It is located in the historic center, which is now considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city goes back to its glory days in the 14th to 16th century. You can see many of the buildings that were built then and since then.

Night scene of The Duomo

The Duomo, with its famous dome the background

There are many other interesting churches, monuments, buildings as you walked around the city center. Here are some of them:

Medici Chapel?

One of the busy streets

Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, near the train station

Palazzo Pitti

Inside one of the churches

Statue and fountain in Piazza Della Signoria

Besides the churches and other older buildings, the stores are also interesting to see. Here are some of them:

A small pizzeria that also sells gelato

Gelato shops are everywhere

Some color candies

We heard about the Central Market and decided to give it a shot. It's not far from the train station. As you approach the market there are many stands selling leather goods. Most of them are run by Indians. Why, How? I don't know. But the Central Market has the downstairs selling raw stuff and upstairs is a big food court. We ate there twice, once for lunch and another time for dinner. The food is good and affordable, unlike some of the restaurants in the city.